The Atlantian Persona Pentathlon is an annual challenge held at Atlantian Kingdom Arts and Sciences Fair. Entrants submit five different items from three or more different categories for a single persona. It is the premiere A&S competition in the kingdom and because I can't help myself, I decided to enter next year eventually.
Because I like to herd cats in my spare time, I also created a Facebook support group for other people who would like to enter next year. The Northern Atlantian Persona Pentathlon Support Group is hopefully full of useful information for people who want to enter the competition and a place where we can bounce ideas off of each other and keep track of our goals.
Life has been aggressively life-ing at me so I no longer actually have a specific year I'm aiming for. I'm mostly just aiming and we'll see where I land.
UPDATE! This is the year. This is not a drill. I have submitted my intention to participate in the 2026 Persona Pentathlon at KASF on March 7, 2026.
A set (4 pieces) of women’s Viking Age Scandinavian garments, Category Two
A Meal (4 dishes), Category Four
Leather mittens, Category Six
A warp-weighted loom, Category Six
A game board and pieces, Category Four
(links to rubrics, will link to documentation when the documentation is ready)
The elements of this entry are made up of a snapshot from the life of a prosperous Viking Age woman. Svana is the widow of a wealthy merchant and daughter of a prosperous Viking who lives and manages her homestead, a day's ride from Birka. The moment we are viewing from her life is as she is preparing to serve a meal in her longhouse. Maybe it is a religious holiday, or a family celebration. Whatever the occasion, she has prepared a meal for her guests and family and wears her finest garments. She wears a white linen serkr as a base layer, a yellow wool kyrtill embroidered with wool along the collar and a blue wool smokkr trimmed with a piece of silk imported from far away. The same silk trims the cuffs of her kyrtill. From her smokkr hangs an assortment of glass and amber beads, as well as a chatelain which includes her scissors, her needle case, the keys to various chests and an amulet her sister gave her. As it is winter, she wears a woolen shawl, her best and most expensive: a twill weave of undyed yarn accented with blue wool yard of the same weight. She wears leather shoes and brown wool socks made by nålebinding. In this snapshot of the moment, in the background is the warp weighted loom. Weaving was a specialized and important part of the life of a Viking Age homestead. The loom would have been part of the daily life of the women of the homestead, particularly during the winter. The loom is warped and weaving is in process, though not finished. Other items assembled are a linen smoother, weaving implements, a pair of leather mittens, a hnefatafl game board set up with antler game pieces, waiting to be played. A meal is prepared and ready to be served into assorted crockery and glass dishes. A moment of celebration from a life in the 9th century.
Analysis of the few textile fragments we have from Viking Age Scandinavia show that wool, linen and hemp were the most common fibers present in the garments of the time. Silk has also been found, but it was much rarer. Generally, scholars believe that wool was the most common fiber for outer garments, as it is both hydrophobic and very warm and the extant finds seems to suggest that wool was the top layer. A base layer of white linen would have been worn against the skin and depending on the weather and wealth of the wearer, more layers of linen or wool would be worn over that. This basic idea of linen and wool layers would have held true for both men and women, adults and children. Layering is a very effective way to hold onto warmth in cold climates, which would have been mortally important in the Nordic region before modern climate controls.
To be clear, we have only fragments of textiles for most garments. There are a few mostly complete items that seem to be men's clothing but there are no sizeable extant examples of any women's clothing from 9th century Scandinavia. We have small fragments that we study very closely and extrapolate from using descriptions from the Sagas, which are an imperfect source as they were written down by Christians after the end of the Viking Age, and the stylized artistic representations found in contemporary Viking Age art, which are also imperfect as figures in pre-Medieval art tend to be difficult to interpret and may represent ceremonial or divine dress which may or may not reflect the common garments of the time.
Careful analysis of extant textile finds in women's graves paired with the Saga sources and artistic representation suggest that women commonly wore a base layer, called a serk, made of white linen, topped by a kyrtill (sometimes called skryta) of either dyed linen or wool, and often a smokkr (sometimes called a hangerock). Smokkrs appear to have been held up by loops that attached to the body of the garment using brooches. From the brooches were hung decorative and practical items, such as glass beads and scissors. Embroidery was used as decoration along the seams and edges of the garments as were tablet woven bands and strips of silk.
I have reproduced these garments with as much accuracy as I can manage. The fibers, weave structure and colors are correct for time and place, though the fabrics were commercially produced and purchased rather than woven by myself.
We have no surviving recipes from Viking Age Scandinavia. We do have archeological finds that tell us the plants, animals and tools that were present in their homes (and trash). We have brief descriptions in the sagas of food and drink. We know they valued mead. We have recipes from after the Viking Age and we have modern traditional recipes. Reconstructing the Viking diet requires informed speculation and experimental archaeology pulling in and compiling the information we have from these other sources.
Where I am able to, I source ingredients that are as close to correct as I can get. I use eggs from my own chickens, I used an organic, smaller chicken. I used a local source for bacon. I used cast iron pots and ceramic pots where I could, and modern cookware otherwise. I used wooden cooking implements as is my preference and used butter I made from a local dairy's cream. I have approximated, as best I can, the utensils, cookware, ingredients and methodologies available during the Viking Age.
One obvious modern tools is the rotisserie oven in which I cooked the chicken. That more closely approximates a spit roasted chicken than simply cooking the chicken in an oven. It is a modern electrical appliance and so cooks more evenly than a fire and requires less hands-on attention than a fire cooked chicken, but it is as close as I can reasonably get.
My documentation is in progress at this time. The document will be uploaded as a PDF when it is finished. In the meantime, you can see the executive summaries and the Bibliography here.